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Data release for Ecosystem service flows from a migratory species: spatial subsidies of the northern pintail

Published by U.S. Geological Survey | Department of the Interior | Catalog Last Checked: May 05, 2026 at 07:25 PM | Dataset Last Updated: August 20, 2020 at 12:00 AM
Migratory species provide important benefits to society, but their cross-border conservation poses serious challenges. By quantifying the economic value of ecosystem services (ES) provided across a species’ range and ecological data on a species’ habitat dependence, we estimate spatial subsidies–how different regions support ES provided by a species across its range. We illustrate this method for migratory Northern Pintail ducks in North America. Pintails support over $101 million annually in recreational hunting and viewing and subsistence hunting in the U.S. and Canada. Pintail breeding regions provide nearly $30 million in subsidies to wintering regions, with the “Prairie Pothole” region supplying over $24 million in annual benefits to other regions. This information can be used to inform conservation funding allocation among migratory regions and nations on which the pintail depends. We thus illustrate a transferrable method to quantify migratory species-derived ES and provide information to aid in their transboundary conservation.

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